Sarah climbs down, looking for anything of note as she does.

Valthur follows Sarah down the rope ladder. "Whaddya' see down there, Missy? Any signs of our ghostlord?" Once on the ground, he checks for tracks and takes a long exterior look at the entire structure to see if there is anywhere else that a prisoner might be found.

Taerix will only bring up the rear if everyone goes down the ladder. Otherwise he will stay up here with whoever else does.

Valthur thinks out loud as he inspects the ground with Sarah. "Maybe we have to put that blasted necklace on one of the statues... or one of those teeth in the mouth up there. Can a ghostlord turn himself into stone?" He kicks at a few stones in front of him. "Okay, it's a stretch, I know. An all-powerful ghostlord and he turns himself into a rock that looks like a lion's tooth? What am I even thinking?"

Sarah and Valthur climb down the rope ladder and see their own tracks from a few hour prior and those of the hobgoblins as well. Additionally, there are also, predictably, feline tracks in the area, but little else of interest. Standing in the shadow of the stone lion's massive head, they see only the entrance, through the lion's chest, they previously entered.

Meanwhile, back inside the lion, Eoni passes from room to room while calling out for the Ghostlord. These efforts prove futile however, as no answer is forthcoming. Finally, the cleric opens the door leading into the chamber with the gore-splattered pit and sees something that had previously gone undetected--the outline of a door in the chamber's southwest corner!

The door is cleverly constructed to at first glance appear to be a natural part of the stone itself, but it is now quite obvious. The door looks like it is meant to be pushed inward.

Though tempted to proceed as they were, the Sister asked Taerix to retrieve the others before they proceeded.

"Can you see that Marklin?" she asked, nodding in the direction of the now obvious outline.  Had they just missed it, or was wearing or possessing the phylactery somehow revealing it to her?

Taerix calls quietly down to Sarah and Valthur. "Hey, you two! Eoni found another door up here!"

Marklin nods in agreement with Eoni's query and responds, "Yeah. I see it."

Moments later, he comments, "We should go get the others..."

Then, he does so.

Sarah nods and climbs up.  Ahead of Valthur, if possible.

Valthur follows Sarah up the ladder. "I knew it! I knew there must be some other room up there."

Once everyone had gathered in the light of her tiara, Eoni nodded for Valthur to push open the secret door.

Beyond the secret door, a narrow corridor of worked stone curves away to the west, terminating at a closed stone door. Valthur might notice the exquisite, almost supernatural worksmanship of the corridor's walls. Curved stone corridors are quite difficult to accomplish and usually feature several joining creases and grooves where sections of wall come together. Here, none are visible. Fine work indeed!

No sound is heard beyond the stone door and it does not appear to be trapped. Presumbaly, this  door is likewise opened. Immediately to the open door's left, another closed door appears. To the right, a corridor jogs off to the north before turning west, continuing on for about 20 feet, and then, it too also terminates at a stone door.

No sound is heard beyond either of these two doors.

OOC: Doorway #1 is located immediately south. Doorway #2 is around the corner, to the northwest.

"Let's try this one," Eoni said as they approached the second door.  "We must be getting close, now."

Valthur follows Eoni's lead, giving the door a once-over for traps and then attempts to open it.

OOC: By "second door", do you mean the one to the west or the one north first, and then west? I thought the former, but may be mistaken.  Never mind, I figured it out thanks to the OOC section of GMs last post - the second door is the northwest one, right?
This message was last edited by the player at 05:47, Wed 20 Feb 2019.

Her magics dealing mostly in invoking trickery but not in purging such or even pointing out mundane secrets, Aldara can do little for her companions -- at present.  At least, not with her magic.

Physical assistance, on the other hand... That was do-able.  Should the Dwarf encounter any difficulties in opening this door, then Aldara will offer one of her untouched iron spikes to his cause.

Taerix is at the rear, as usual, watching for danger coming up from behind... especially that invisible Wyrmlord!

The second, northwest door, opens to reveal a room containing a low divan, several shelves of books, and numerous shelves and displays of all manner of lion-related artwork. Paintings, statuary, tiny coffers, pottery, sculptures, fine jewelry, and the like line the walls and shelves. Everything here is covered with a thick layer of dust.

"Let's try the other door before disturbing this room," Eoni suggested after seeing no sign of recent activity.

"We must be close," she added, touching the phylactery about her neck.  "This looks like it may have been his personal quarters."

Backtracking to the door immediately south of the first door they passed through, the adventurers open the stone door...

The door opens into a long chamber awash in sickly yellow light shining up from the glowing surface of a large pool of mustard-colored water. Some sort of large shape is floating inside the pool. The pool's rim is made out of dozens, perhaps hundreds, of lion's skulls that have been fised together with gray mortar. Shadowy alcoves line the north and south walls, three on each side, and to the west of the sickly pool stands a fifteen-foot tall statue of a rotting lion. The morbidly majestic figure's head reaches nearly to the ceiling.

A corridor seems to extend off the east end of the long chamber, though it is impossible to see where it leads without entering the strange, yellow-hued room.

OOC: The door the party opened is located in the long chamber's (~ 20 x 40 feet) northeast corner.

Sarah looks at the surroundings, including the ground.  The room with artwork was covered in thick dust, suggesting nobody had been there in a while.  This room appears . . . ?

Eoni paused to see if Sarah saw something she hadn't.

The long chamber is dusty but appears to be trafficked somewhat frequently.

Sarah brings the others' attention to her discovery. "This must be the way."

"Let's follow the tracks," Eoni suggested, agreeing with Sarah's observation.

Valthur leads the party into the room
"Stay clear of that pool," he suggests. "And the alcoves... and that gigantic lion over there. Come to think of it just steer clear of everything!"